Male suicide crisis – how gender equality, feminism, and policy engendered this obscure issue – Richard Reeves

It's a well-known fact that the global suicide rate is alarming, with an average of over 700,000 people taking their own lives each year. What isn't remotely well-known, however, is that the suicide rate among males is three to four times higher than that among women. Richard V. Reeves, a senior fellow at the highly respected think tank Brookings Institution, where he directs the Future of the Middle-Class Initiative and co-directs the Center on Children and Families, has extensively researched this dark disparity between genders. Despite strong warnings not to, the father of three boys documented his findings in Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It in 2022, a critical but bold undertaking in light of our social landscape which dismisses the plight of men by virtue of its (perceived) infinite inferiority to the history of injustices suffered by women. Reeves sets out the structural and social shifts over recent decades, which have effectively left a vacuum previously occupied by permitted and biologically informed masculinity – now tainted as toxic. In an interview with Reeves, the maligned issue of male malaise and the social, cultural and ideological reasons driving this are discussed – highlighting just how crucial addressing the crisis faced by boys and men is to the well-being and flourishing of BOTH genders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices